tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28748594174298536612018-03-18T14:04:18.299-04:00Baba Who? Babalú! Who is Lukumí Babalú-Ayé, Santería's San Lázaro, Asojano Arará?
Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.comBlogger127125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-30583165155824631042017-12-29T14:17:00.004-05:002017-12-29T14:17:34.929-05:00Babalú-Ayé and a Theology of Multiplicity<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Babalú-Ayé’s world is rife with multiplicity. He is called by many names. Some people say he has 77 different roads, or avatars. He is honored by an enormous number of groups, and they make altar objects for him with many different forms. Even the secret medicines that go into these objects vary widely.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Babalú-Ayé is called by many <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-in-name.html">names</a>. In the Cuba countryside, some people call him Ayanu, and there are songs from Matanzas Province that reiterate this name as a generic praise name for him. The Ararat usually call him Asojano. In a common shorthand, many people simply refer to him as “the Old Man” or San Lázaro, the Catholic saint with which he is strongly associated. As I have explained elsewhere, these names are all really meant to protect us from speaking is true name, Shakuaná. To utter that name is to call sickness and death into your immediate surroundings.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">My godfather Ernesto Pichardo taught me that Babalú-Ayé is like a surname for a group of deities, each of which has its own character, history, and preferences. <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/09/many-roads-of-babalu-aye-soyaya.html">Soyaya</a>is the earth at the bottom of the sea and eats yellow snapper. The road called <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/07/many-roads-of-babalu-aye-agronika.html">Agrónika</a>is said to have retreated to a cave to create the já, the cleansing broom that figures in many of Babalú’s ceremonies. Young and energetic, <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/11/many-roads-of-babalu-aye-afimaye.html">Afimaye</a>is said to be the youngest road of Babalú. Bound by a family connection to the earth, sickness, and healing, each road expresses a different face of the deity.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Individual devotees may even end up receiving or inheriting multiple manifestations of Babal<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">ú-Ayé over time. Raquel Fernández—Obá Kedún inherited six different Babalús, including the Arará deity that had crowned her husband, <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/04/rafael-linaresemergo.html">Rafael Linares—Emerego</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fundamentos</i>, or consecrated altar objects, that people use to honor Babalú also <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2009/12/forms-of-babalu-aye-lucumi-versus-arara.html">vary widely</a>. The so-called Babalú-Ayé Lucumí takes coral stones and cowry shells, like other Lucumí deities. Most communities cover the vessels that contain these things, but <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2009/12/sociedad-africana-de-santa-barbara.html">some</a>do not. Some Arará lineages give a sealed vessel with nothing in it. While some people find this objectionable, others argue that it makes perfect sense: Babalú-Ayé is spiritual and therefore cannot be contained in a vessel. The Arará Sabalú give Asojano in the same kind of vessel but with a large “secret” within it. While no one really argues about the validity of the multiple names of the deity, people can become quite polemical about the morphology of the altar objects, claiming that one is real while the other is an “invention.” <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">This mass of cement contains a wide range of medicines. Some priests have shared their “recipes” for these secrets with me, and some people use these as a schema from which to improvise or consult the deity. My godfather <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/11/pedro-abreuasonyanye-son-of-asojano.html">Pedro Abreu</a> says that he makes each one unique, even if they are for the same road. Why? Because the medicine that will heal one person is not the same medicine that will heal another, even if they have the same ailment.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-TRAD" style="mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">So how do we make sense of this extensive multipilicity? How do we describe a deity whose identity, names, and very form vary so widely? How do we understand these phenomena as anthropological, sociological, or psychological? When discussing the use of plates to decorate the altars of water goddesses in the Diaspor</span>a, the famed art historian and praise singer of Yoruba classicism Robert Farris Thompson describes how some priestesses claimed the plates were only for dressing the goddesses up, some shared a more calculating and meaningful use of the plates to identify the goddesses, and still others articulated a direct cosmological significance. Celebrating this diversity, he says, “A range of elaborative and interpretive discretion confronts us.” We might extend this idea to formulate a notion of “interpretative multiplicities”—the various if simultaneous meanings and uses that people ascribe to the same symbols and actions with the African-inspired religious worlds of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">oricha</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fodun</i> worship. This notion embraces the fundamental multivocality of symbols and symbolic action, while at the same it recognizes that pluralistic and indeterminate nature of the social and psychological universe, just as William James argued. 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mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment--><br /><div class="MsoNormal">Note: The Thompson quote comes from page 215 of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faces of the Gods: Art and Altars of Africa and The African Americas</i> (New York: The Museum of African Art, 1993).<o:p></o:p></div><div><br /></div>Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-6080632012687088582016-11-06T11:38:00.001-05:002016-11-06T11:38:24.600-05:00Babalú at Harvard<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_G8lvWwnBDQ/WB9cgGbNuoI/AAAAAAAAApI/2IjWXkYFsNoLGrbZRctL38ZIVKHA9-QBgCK4B/s1600/IMG_4766-704601.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_G8lvWwnBDQ/WB9cgGbNuoI/AAAAAAAAApI/2IjWXkYFsNoLGrbZRctL38ZIVKHA9-QBgCK4B/s320/IMG_4766-704601.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6349895706166016642" /></a></p>
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<br>Sent from my iPhoneThis Ernst Barlach sculpture is titled &quot;Crippled Beggar&quot; and reminds all who enter the Harvard Art Museum of our shared human condition.Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-62709708737578916752016-01-12T20:40:00.001-05:002016-01-12T20:43:25.765-05:00Lazarus and David BowieIn his last video, creative giant David Bowie made explicit reference to Lazarus. Shot in a hospital room, the scene opens with a dark room and then shows Bowie as a patient with his eyes bandaged. The opening line ("Look up here, I'm in heaven) coincides with an downward shot of Bowie lying in a hospital bed and clutching his covers like a small child. We are all like children before Babalú.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/y-JqH1M4Ya8/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y-JqH1M4Ya8?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><br />Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-24099411824215668242015-12-16T19:08:00.001-05:002015-12-16T19:08:55.579-05:00Check out my new Smithsonian article on the Feast of Babalú-Ayé!<a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/cubas-fascinating-december-holiday-honors-african-and-catholic-traditions-180957553/#XyOzTWULybzzT3cy.15">Smithsonian scholar on Babalú-Ayé in Rincón, Cuba on Dec. 17 @Smithsonianfolk @Folkways</a>Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-89605843988213484092015-12-12T09:14:00.000-05:002015-12-12T09:14:05.661-05:00Reflections on the Feast of San Lázaro on Latin Pulse Radio Show<iframe frameborder="no" height="450" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/237134340&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;visual=true" width="100%"></iframe><br /><br />Check out this discussion of the Feast of San Lázaro and Babalú-Ayé. The conversation begins around 4:20.<br /><br /><br />Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-74569108687088458212015-04-19T21:18:00.001-04:002015-04-19T21:18:23.814-04:00Sitala, Babalú’s Cousin in South Asia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_-bhR-GggF8/VTRNfuWutxI/AAAAAAAAAnw/1kgO6mPS-RM/s1600/sitala.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_-bhR-GggF8/VTRNfuWutxI/AAAAAAAAAnw/1kgO6mPS-RM/s1600/sitala.jpg" height="320" width="223" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I was recently in India for my job, and it turns out that there is a goddess in South Asia who resembles Babalú-Ayé and his mother <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/05/nanu-mother-of-babalu-aye.html">Nanú</a>in many details. Her name is Sitala, and a bit of quick research points to remarkable parallels.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sitala</i> means “Cool One” in Sanskrit, and she is imagined as the antidote to the burning fevers associated with smallpox and the dry season, when she is worshipped most commonly, again just like Babalú. In fact, in some stories and in some places, she must only be offered cool foods, just as only cool foods are given to the <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/08/babalu-aye-as-ancestor.html">ancestors</a> in oricha religion.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">She, too, has many names. She is called Shitala, Shitala-Ma (Mother), or Shitala-Devi (goddess).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Just as Babalú-Ayé means “<a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-in-name.html">Father, Lord of the World</a>” and thought to rule the Earth, Sitala is sometimes called Jagrani, meaning “Queen of the Earth.” She may also be referred to as the Queen of Disease (<i>Roga Raja)</i>, Lord of Pestilence (<i>Vyadhi Pati</i>), or Mother of Poxes (<i>Basenta Raya</i>). (These last titles come from Proggya Ghatak’s<i> 2013 article “The Sitala Saga</i>.”) <span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Just as Babá has different roads or avatars that reflect different <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/10/babalu-aye-in-sickness-and-in-health.html">illnesses</a> and epidemics, Sitala is joined by a small pantheon of other disease deities: Jvarasura, the fever demon; Oladevi, the cholera goddess,; Ghentu-debata, the god of skin diseases; and Raktabati, the goddess of blood infections and the sixty-four epidemics.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Sitala’s iconography also resembles Babalú’s in many important ways. Both carry <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/02/working-with-atenas-ojuani-meyi.html">brooms</a> to sweep away illness or spread it, as necessary. Sitala carries a vessel filled with <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2009/11/babalu-aye-and-power-of-images.html">beans</a>, which her followers understand to be symbols of the germs she can spread, just as Babalú receives offerings of beans, which are called by the same name in Cuban Spanish as sores. She also carries herbs famed for healing skin diseases, in the same way that Babalú is strongly associated with the healing power of the herb <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/05/working-with-substances-cundeamor.html">cundeamor</a>that is used to fight an array of diseases. Sitala wears a red sari, just as Babalú is associated with red, the quintessential color that denotes heat.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Even more incredible is the similarity in their mythologies. Like Babalú, Sitala is mistreated by the other gods and infects them. Sitala sets off the kingdom of Indra but presents herself as a crone. She is greeted with disrespect by the other deities, and so she orders the Fever Demon to possess the bodies of the gods. After the fever come the pox that cover their bodies. Shiva then reveals that their illness is caused by the “wrath of Sitala.” So they understand her in a new way and worship her. (This narrative comes from page 70 of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fruits of Worship: Practical Religion in Bengal</i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;By Ralph W. Nicholas.) See the similar story of Babalú<span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2009/12/babalu-aye-and-exile-one-old-story.html">here</a>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">There are other stories where she spreads her illnesses through her beans and then demands that people honor her far and wide. Similarly in some places, she is seen as a giver of good fortune, just as Babalú sometimes bestows wealth on his devotees. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">These many parallels are remarkable precisely because they are so extensive, and they do raise questions that I find hard to answer: Did these similar divine expressions emerge independently from some shared layer deep in the human psyche? Was there some shared point of origin for these traditions in the distant past? Or is there some way that people in different cultures experience the arbitrary cruelty and burning pain of smallpox and similar epidemics that leads them to express these experiences through similar stories and images? While I cannot answer these questions, I can attest to the power of these images to express and contain one aspect of our shared human experience: No matter how grand our resumes, how big our families, or how generous our paychecks, we all carry some inescapable and painful place within us. This lived experience certainly transcends culture, time, and place, and reflecting on Babalú's <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/06/more-reflections-of-echu-afra.html">stories</a><span style="color: #262626;">&nbsp;</span>can help us draw closer to it.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Special thanks to Lina Vincent Sunish for introducing me to Sitala-Ma and for sharing this watercolor from the Wellcome Library.<span style="color: #262626;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PDNNaMkzEKM/VTROi1ceo_I/AAAAAAAAAn8/D66Y-uq9SdU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-04-19%2Bat%2B8.54.31%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" 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table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment--><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-73981130829646542732014-04-05T23:30:00.001-04:002014-04-05T23:30:43.822-04:00Visions of Babalú from Different PlacesI was recently contacted by an interesting radio producer named Emile Klien, because he was working on a story about Babalú-Ayé. He had already interviewed a lot of my favorite people, and he asked to interview me. He was surprised when I said yes, as apparently my friends had told him that I am usually shy. But how could I miss the opportunity to discuss the Lord of the Earth. You can hear the six-minute production <a href="http://styluswbur.tumblr.com/post/81405977810/who-is-babalu-around-the-world-priests">here</a>. Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-4723334095841797202013-11-23T11:31:00.002-05:002013-11-23T14:17:37.957-05:00Itutu: Transformation, Rupture and Repair<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kn3J4EzVNB0/UpDXGpQ0KyI/AAAAAAAAAl4/pW3tpqvDu2o/s1600/IMG_3653.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kn3J4EzVNB0/UpDXGpQ0KyI/AAAAAAAAAl4/pW3tpqvDu2o/s400/IMG_3653.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Babalú-Ayé does not play a formal ritual role in the itutu, the funeral ceremony for those oricha priests that have passed away. However many elders contend that he delivers the body of the dead person to the cemetery on a cart, and so he is always strongly linked to <span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/12/themes-in-worship-of-babalu-revisited.html">death</a></span>. Given the recent passing of friends, I have seen several itutus lately, and like most ceremonies in the religion, they invite reflection.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The itutu brings transformation, as the deceased moves from the world of the living to the world of the dead. Essentials from the priest’s initiation are placed in an open gourd on the floor within the egun altar. We sing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">oro egun</i>, the nine songs to praise and move the ancestors. For first time, we name the spirit of our departed colleague as part of the invocation, and we sing to them as an egun. We also feed the new spirit with a bird. For those of us who regularly honor the ancestors, their presence is constant, but we never lose track of the fact that we are living on Earth and they are living in Heaven. The gourd contains many of the things placed on the head at the time of initiation, and by placing those things with the ancestors, we are helping to direct the spirit from Earth toward Heaven. It is chilling and unforgettable to stand before the ancestor altar and call the name of a loved one who has recently died. The songs we sing are full with the gravity of grief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The process cuts through denial, and the reality of loss begins to set in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The itutu brings rupture. As we tend the spirit of the departed, we pull apart each of her oricha necklaces over the gourd. Because the strings stretch then snap suddenly, the beads usually scatter across the floor. What was whole, organized, and beautiful is now broken, chaotic, and formless. After the orichas speak their will, some depart with the deceased, and we must break their vessels once and for all. The presiding priest passes from one oricha to the next, striking their vessels with a hammer. The sound of shattering porcelain sends shivers through those in attendance. After all of this, it is impossible to deny that life for our fallen friend and for us has been shattered in some way.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tY0D2g5t15Q/UpDXJmiV13I/AAAAAAAAAmA/lBSjdym5wC0/s1600/IMG_3648.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tY0D2g5t15Q/UpDXJmiV13I/AAAAAAAAAmA/lBSjdym5wC0/s400/IMG_3648.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The itutu brings continuity. Some of the orichas stay with blood family and ritual relatives. The elders teach that these inherited orichas stay because they want to guide and protect those left behind when the priest or priestess passes. We do not work these orichas but simply tend to them with simple offerings and candles. In tending them, we quite literally tend the memory of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">egun</i> from whom they came. For those of us already in the religion, these inherited orichas become reminders of the people who have passed. We cherish them as containers of the love that exists between us and the egun from whom they came. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The itutu brings new knowledge and new relationships. For blood relatives who are not in the tradition, inheriting an oricha is often the moment when they actually begin to learn about the religion in more detail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The inherited orichas require additional ceremonies like “removing the tears” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">quitar las l</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="ES-TRAD" style="mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">ágrimas</span></i>), and the process often creates new relationships with people in the religious community. Similarly those who inherit an oricha need to learn how to greet and tend the oricha, and this often opens the door to a deeper engagement with the orichas. Again many family members adore their inherited oricha and experience a deep sense of connection and continuity with the ancestor who left the oricha to them. (Sadly some family members resist the gift of this inheritance, because they perceive it as too great a responsibility or a burden.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The itutu brings closure. The elders teach that the stones that become the core of oricha altars must come from a river, from the flowing waters of life. Similarly the new initiate visits the river and makes an offering to mark the beginning of her priesthood. In itutu, the gourd from the egun altar and the orichas who want to depart return to the river.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The cool water refreshes them, as they leave this world, but there is a deeper lesson here: We are born from the river of life, and the river of life carries us away in the end. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Maferefún Egun. Maferefún Ar</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="ES-TRAD" style="mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">á Onú. 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mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment--><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-52830650399727139212013-08-24T07:37:00.001-04:002013-08-24T07:37:47.544-04:00Babalú's AuthorityAs a dear friend struggles with debilitating illness, I remember a truth I have recognized before: as long as we are incarnated, as long as our spirits reside in these human bodies, we are subject to the authority of Babal&#250;-Ay&#233;.Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-47591870194253833642013-06-13T12:49:00.000-04:002013-11-16T07:01:17.279-05:00The Many Roads of Babalú-Ayé: Suvinengué<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WxB6UCQibdw/Ubn2OFnwJYI/AAAAAAAAAjY/JxXmYyQTbOw/s1600/turkey-vulture-sc5xey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WxB6UCQibdw/Ubn2OFnwJYI/AAAAAAAAAjY/JxXmYyQTbOw/s320/turkey-vulture-sc5xey.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In both Cuba and Benin, the road of Babalú-Ayé known as Suvinengué is strongly associated with the vulture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>His name can be translated as “vulture-child of <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/05/dasoyi-father-of-babalu-aye.html">Dasoyi</a>.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>The elders in Cuba say that Suvinengué is a vulture with the head of human being, and in Benin they also say he is bald and gray, like the vulture. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Some Dahomean elders say Suvinengué flies from Earth up to Heaven carrying messages from human mouths to God´s ears. They say he indicates whether an offering has been accepted or not. When an offering is left outside and then disappears overnight, it is thought that Suvinengué has taken it to the deity it was intended for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Still others say simply, “He eats the dead.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">This link between Babalú and the ancestors is quite profound, and other roads of the deity revolve around this link. <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/11/many-roads-of-babalu-aye-afimaye.html">Afimaye</a> is said to seek out Arará priests at the hour of their deaths, but in Benin, he is seen as the overseer of a collective workforce made up of the spirits of the dead. Similarly, the <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2009/12/shakuanas-secret-place-to-eat.html">kiti</a> is a place where the spirits who are children of the deity gather to eat.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Obviously there is a strong link between the dead and vultures. As carrion-eaters, vultures circling in the sky are a sign of the impending death of some poor creature below. When vultures eat, they often end up covered with the blood and tissue of the dead animal. The vulture is the largest raptor in Cuba and as such is often seen as the dominant animal in the sky. So powerful is this association that generals and high-ranking state officials in Cuba are still called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mayimbes</i>, meaning<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>“vultures” in the Congo language spoken on the island.<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Cuba, the elders put boniato to Suvinengué, and often decorate it with five vulture feathers. Suvinengué takes white beads with blue stripes and jet beads as accents.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is interesting to note that there is a road of Ochún called Ibú Ikolé that also takes the form of a vulture, and is famed for carrying messages from Earth to Olodumare in Heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">(References on Benin can be found in Herskovits’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dahomey</i>, Volume 2, page 140.)<o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1bMTGHRKrE0/Ubn2S3Lb4MI/AAAAAAAAAjg/B7Myv-qiMew/s1600/vulture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1bMTGHRKrE0/Ubn2S3Lb4MI/AAAAAAAAAjg/B7Myv-qiMew/s320/vulture.jpg" width="248" /></a></div>Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-70502103522394585872013-05-28T15:14:00.000-04:002013-11-16T07:01:37.667-05:00Dasoyí, the Father of Babalú-Ayé<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IXqrUAcH1Zo/Tcv_d8iqjmI/AAAAAAAAASU/PbOkFFcJkVQ/s1600/Untitled-462%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" j8="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IXqrUAcH1Zo/Tcv_d8iqjmI/AAAAAAAAASU/PbOkFFcJkVQ/s320/Untitled-462%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Perhaps the most common road of Babalú-Ayé in Cuba is Dasoyí, who is also known as Asoyí, and Dasojí Kajua. People commonly refer to him as the father of Babalú-Ayé, and really this just suggests his authority and generative power. Together with <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/05/nanu-mother-of-babalu-aye.html">Nanú</a>, the mother of Babalú, he brought forth <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2009/11/origins-of-babalu-aye.html">all the other roads</a> of the Earth deity. He is commonly imagined reclining against the trunk of a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ceiba</i> tree surrounded by his children. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In some very traditional houses, Dasoyí can be seen resting on a divination tray supported by four skulls. The tray symbolizes the Earth, and seated on top of it, Dasoyí rules the world. The skulls tie him to the ancestors, who are buried in the Earth he rules, and they could stand for the generic dead of the four cardinal directions. However, they also allude to a time when he placed his throne on the skulls of the four vanquished kings of a legendary place called Igoroto. The skulls could represent these kings or royals from the Dahomean dynasty, who banished the Earth deities from the capital city because they could brook no competition for their authority. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dasoyí sometimes takes a cane because of his age, though I have never seen this. Some lineages mark his ritual broom with a single red parrot to show his authority. He usually takes the caramel-colored beads that Cubans call <em>matipó</em>. After seventeen of these, he takes one jet bead. </span></div>Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-14015122335518651312013-03-24T15:58:00.001-04:002013-03-26T19:37:56.039-04:00The Sickened Speech of Babalú-Ayé <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8nDJGhREfic/UU9awKoc9wI/AAAAAAAAAic/bXJke9h8T_U/s1600/Linares+Ja+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8nDJGhREfic/UU9awKoc9wI/AAAAAAAAAic/bXJke9h8T_U/s1600/Linares+Ja+2.JPG" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 1992, when I first visited Cuba, an elder told me a simple story about the ritual broom of Babalú-Ayé that is usually called the <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/02/working-with-atenas-ojuani-meyi.html">já</a>. He explained that when Babalú was wandering the Earth, at some point he was so sick that he could no longer speak. In the laconic Cuban style, he said, “So that’s why Babalú-Ayé has 16 cowries sewn to his já and why he does not speak through the shells.”&nbsp; Throughout the stories of Babalú, speech is contested and fraught with difficulty. Common to all aspects of Lucumí religion, different accounts provide explanations and justifications for who has the authority to speak for Babalú-Ayé and in what contexts. These accounts&nbsp;are of intense relevance&nbsp;because speech is usually homologous with knowledge in the religion, and knowledge is perhaps the most potent currency that moves between people.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The classic tale from the sign Ojuani-Odí explains how <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/06/where-oluo-popo-united-with-orula.html">Babalú-Ayé united with Orula</a>. No one could stop Death except Orula, and so Babalú-Ayé made a long-term alliance with him. From that point forward, Babalú-Ayé is said to have only spoken through Orula and the Ifá divination he governs.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is a story in the sign Irete-Oyeku that also links the shells on the já to the troubled nature of Babalú’s speech. The story&nbsp;offers the&nbsp;classic tale of his exile: Babalú did not play by the rules, and so the Lucumí expelled him.&nbsp; But this story explicitly states that when the Lucumí exiled Babalú, they also forbade him to speak through the shells, which were thereafter sewn to his já as a reminder of this taboo. It seems they sought to silence him and thereby limit the impact of the ruptures he causes and suffering they imply. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For contrast, it is interesting to note that there is another story that explains the origin of the já as a healing tool. <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/07/many-roads-of-babalu-aye-agronika.html">Babalú-Ayé-Agrónika-Omobitasa</a> entered a cave to consecrate a já that he then used to heal the Arará.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The sign Ogunda Meyi contains the most complex and seemingly opposite accounts of Babalú’s access to speech. First, it is worth noting that Ogunda Meyi is where leprosy was born and spread around the world, so from the outset it is inseparably linked to Babalú, who was historically associated with the scourge of leprosy. This divination sign also includes a powerfully simple story where Asojano, exhausted from his travels, sits down on a stone in the land of the Arará, and is immediately given the <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/09/where-babalu-aye-became-diviner.html">gift of being able to divine</a>: He is connected to the Earth and he speaks the truth. No shells, no third-party, no nasal voice. He speaks, and what he says is true.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the same time, Ogunda Meyi contains a story that explains the birth of the okpele, the divining chain made with eight seeds that babalawos use, and in that story Babalú-Ayé is a major player. While wandering the Earth, Babalú comes to a place where he recognizes the language being spoken by the local diviner. It turns out the local&nbsp;diviner is a long-lost godchild of Babalú’s. The diviner tries to heal Babalú’s leprosy but in the process contracts the disease himself. As he lies dying, he hands Babalú an okpele, explaining that it is a secret Messenger for Ifá.&nbsp; The godson also explains that a tree will grow from his grave, and from the nuts of that tree, Babalú can make more okpeles.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/11/pedro-abreuasonyanye-son-of-asojano.html">Pedro Abreu-Asonyanye</a>, the leading Arará priest of Asojano in Havana, categorically maintains that&nbsp;Babalú does not speak when he possesses people because in&nbsp;his opinion, he only speaks through Ifá divination. As Abreu&nbsp;points out, when Asojano comes down into people’s bodies and tries to speak, he speaks in a strange and nasal voice that is hard to understand, a voice the Cubans call <i>fañosa</i>. Abreu does take this as an explanation for why Asojano must speak through Ifá, but it actually opens the conversation to the intelligibility of the sickened speech of Babalú-Ayé, the theme of my next post.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">(Thanks as always to Eguín Koladé for clarifying conversation. The já pictured above belonged to <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/04/rafael-linaresemergo.html">Rafael Linares--Emerego</a>.)</div><!--EndFragment--><br />Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-6210187189917888182013-02-03T02:15:00.000-05:002013-02-03T02:16:38.792-05:00Termite Hill in the South Rift Valley<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1d7IT2jlFQs/UQ4O2HicnuI/AAAAAAAAAiE/3ZLQCBlkfyk/s1600/photo-798792.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1d7IT2jlFQs/UQ4O2HicnuI/AAAAAAAAAiE/3ZLQCBlkfyk/s320/photo-798792.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5840622089645367010" /></a></p>
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<br>Large and noticeable on the low, flat floor of the Rift Valley in Kenya, it is easy to appreciate why people see termite hills as both an eruption of the underworld into this world and as an access point to that unseen land. The termites move comfortably between the worlds, and we can only hope to emulate their chthonic wisdom. Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-47834140341730568602012-10-31T11:07:00.004-04:002013-04-24T14:52:53.384-04:00Judith Gleason--Oyá Lola Has Joined the Ancestors<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n2HaDl3Oa7w/UIgM7QsaDwI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/CMq0_PJFoCY/s1600/Judith+Gleason.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" oea="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n2HaDl3Oa7w/UIgM7QsaDwI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/CMq0_PJFoCY/s1600/Judith+Gleason.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">A couple weeks back I had to go to New York City for work, and I called Judith Gleason to see if she wanted to have dinner. No answer, so I left a message. The next day, her son left me a message explaining that she had joined the ancestors on August 5th after having a stroke. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have "known" Judith since 1987, though I doubt anyone really knew her. In all honesty it is terribly difficult for me to separate her from Oyá, the oricha of her devotion, the oricha of lightning and winds, whose unpredictable movements shake up the <em>status quo</em> and reveal new opportunities. So here I am cleaning up after this storm. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">When I was twenty-one, I found Judith´s book, <em>Oyá: In Praise of the Goddess.</em> I read it again and again, as I tried to follow the shifting currents of its prose and as I worked to digest the world it depicted. I still have the original copy whose binding has been broken by wear and double taped for reinforcement. The book is a masterpiece of original, synthetic scholarship that breaks between lived experience, anthropology, depth psychology, textual analysis, and diasporic description. These shifting perspectives imitate the motile quality of Oyá's subjectivity and reveal Judith’s unwillingness to privilege any one perspective. Such was her deep commitment to her vision of wholeness. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Having been pulled (or blown?) into the world of oricha, I needed to find a way to connect to the community, so I sought Judith out. I found her name and address in <em>Contemporary Authors </em>and wrote her a short letter explaining my situation. A week later I received a short letter in her own hand, explaining that she only knew two diviners but recommending one--Santiago Pedroso. A month later I visited Santiago for my first cowry shell reading, and five years later Santiago's sister Norma initiated me to the orichas. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">As the years went by, Judith and I would talk from time to time, always circling our common interests--oricha, the feminine, depth psychology, writing, family, and finding a path through the world. Over the years, I heard about "the children" at Stanford, in Mexico, dealing with mental illness. There were conversations where I called with a specific question, and Judith and I would talk till we wandered through to some kind of answer. But there were other "conversations" where Judith would launch into whatever she was working on or thinking about, propelled by the inner force that defined her in some way. In either case, I usually would get a letter a week or two later with more thoughts, hints, intuitions, and images. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">In one such conversation, we discussed Nana Burukú and Nanú, dark goddesses associated with the powerful mysteries of the Earth. I had told Judith that my guiding ancestor spirit had served Nana Burukú as a priestess in life. A week later, a letter arrived addressed in her distinctive handwriting, and it contained a small necklace for Nana Burukú that Judith had gotten in Dassa, Benin, where the goddess has her principal temple. That necklace still sits on my ancestor shrine, gracing the neck of the doll that represents my guide spirit.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">At some point, Judith wanted to go to Cuba to meet a senior Oyá priestess I had mentioned to her several times. I set her up with a driver, a place to stay, and more contacts than she could possibly meet in a week. To my delight, she fell in love with Cuba. The simplicity and directness of most people delighted her, and she appreciated the priestess Ester de Oyá, who in her late seventies was still dancing for the orichas at drumming ceremonies. Judith also took a shining to my friend Paco, with whom she stayed. I think she ended up going twice, but the years make it hard to remember. What I do remember is the lilt in her voice when she spoke of Cuba. I was thrilled to be able to return the favor of opening the roads for her to find some new vitality. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">The last time we spoke was in April. She called because a mutual friend had reached out to ask her about her involvement in the oricha community in New York in the late 1960s, and Judith somehow decided she wanted to cover some of this territory this with me. I had spoken to her relatively recently, and so I had some sense of her struggles to survive on a fixed income and the devastating loss she had suffered from the death of daughter. She told me of her efforts to find some footing in this new place. She recounted how a friend had insisted that she needed help and had directed her to a psychologist--her "shrink" as she kept saying. The talk-therapy helped, she said, but she confessed that she never told her shrink about her involvement with the orichas. "I am not sure what he would make of it, but I have never said anything about it." We talked too about the power of the psyche to defend itself from terrible trauma and loss. She mentioned a poem by Wallace Stevens that had helped her a bit as she struggled to make sense of the trajectory of her own life. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">My wife tells me that when I got off the phone, I said I thought Judith was dying. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">A week later the last handwritten letter arrived, continuing the conversation with more bits of detail about her family and her Yoruba experiences," this time telling how she had just recounted her first meeting with Pierre Verger to her eldest daughter. "So shreds of my Yoruba experience fly by. The years collapse and sometimes I cannot imagine how it all happened." Taped into the middle of the letter was the Stevens poem.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain </em></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">There it was, word for word,</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The poem that took the place of a mountain.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">He breathed its oxygen,</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even when the book lay turned in the dust of his table.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">It reminded him how he had needed</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">A place to go to in his own direction,</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">How he had recomposed the pine,</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Shifted the rocks and picked his way among the clouds,</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the outlook that would be right,</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Where he would be complete in an unexplained completion</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">The exact rock where his inexactnesses</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Would discover, at last, the view toward which they had edged</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Where he could lie and, gazing down at the sea,</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Recognize his unique and solitary home.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">--Wallace Stevens</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">It seems the blustering energy of a stormy intellect finally came home, directed to the specific, solitary solidity of the mountain. The opposites touched for a moment or a month, and now Judith Gleason--Oyá Lola is gone. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ibaye, ibaye tonu. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Homage of the world, homage of the world to the one in heaven. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-6397491966687542742012-10-12T12:41:00.001-04:002013-04-24T15:05:21.644-04:00Pilgrimage: The Soul in Search of Itself<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w0KEwOryhx8/UHhHz5mfyJI/AAAAAAAAAg4/--6UWy2VK_A/s1600/Untitled-445.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" nea="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w0KEwOryhx8/UHhHz5mfyJI/AAAAAAAAAg4/--6UWy2VK_A/s320/Untitled-445.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />Just this week I got a flyer in the mail from the New York Center for Jungian Studies, advertising their 2013 <a href="http://www.nyjungcenter.org/jung-in-ireland">Jung in Ireland</a> program. One program was titled "Pilgrimage: The Soul in Search of Itself," and the copy gets to the heart of much of what I have tried to evoke in my writings on Babalú-Ayé and pilgrimage.<br /><br />"Pilgrimage, an archetype representing the search for spiritual centeredness and wholeness, compels us to separate ourselves from ordinary&nbsp;life and place, and to embark on a meaningful encounter with what C.G. Jung calls the “Self.” Throughout the ages, people from all walks of life&nbsp;and every religious tradition have embarked on pilgrimages, explorations that mirror a spiritual journey inward to reflect on our life’s meaning&nbsp;and purpose. <br /><br />Just as no two people are the same, no two pilgrimages are the same. Some necessitate a concrete and literal destination, while others consist&nbsp;of an inner, self-directed goal. But all pilgrimages have in common a restless human longing for depth, transcendence, and, ultimately, an&nbsp;authentic sense of being at home with ourselves in an ever-changing world. These are found in the soul’s search for itself. And, as such, we are&nbsp;all pilgrims.<br /><br />"...We...come to understand how the often perilous journey and difficult inner work of the pilgrim is not so much of discovery but of&nbsp;rediscovery, not attainment but a reinstatement of the original human condition and even, as some would have it, a way back to a world of&nbsp;meaning and spirit."<br /><br />(The image is a pilgrim on the way to Rincón, Cuba, as part of the annual festival of San Lázaro.)Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-50032181178046488002012-10-05T11:59:00.000-04:002012-10-05T11:59:16.829-04:00Images from the Feast of San Lázaro<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowFullScreen='true' webkitallowfullscreen='true' mozallowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/g67XSjsuho0?feature=player_embedded' FRAMEBORDER='0' /></div><br />This video provides a touching rendition of the pilgrimage through black-and-white photography.<br />Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-71596620911600315222012-09-18T10:40:00.001-04:002013-04-29T15:30:49.665-04:00The Imitation of Babalú-Ayé: The Sacred Stranger <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hQFR2VKCN1g/UFiGY6b8elI/AAAAAAAAAgk/QWIAXTLxDGE/s1600/Earth-mound-30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hQFR2VKCN1g/UFiGY6b8elI/AAAAAAAAAgk/QWIAXTLxDGE/s320/Earth-mound-30.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For whatever reason, I find myself intrigued today by a certain set of parallels in the material I have been laying out here: there are many aspects of Babalú-Ayé that live outside the house and cannot be brought in. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>The Zulueta house in Perico has the </span><a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2009/12/jundesi-plants-secret-of-san-lazaro.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">secret</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> that lives in an outbuilding in the patio, planted mysteriously by their founding ancestress, Octavia—Jundesi. Irete-Oyekún calls for the consecration of </span><a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/01/secrets-again-ajuangan-companion-to.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ajuangan</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, a powerful and destructive force who also lives in the patio. Oyekún-Ojuani describes the </span><a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2009/12/shakuanas-secret-place-to-eat.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">kiti</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, the secret place for Asojano to eat and call his disruptive children. </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Each of these seems to move against the major ritual pattern in Lucumí initiations for warrior deities, where the oricha is first fed in the forest and then, once placated, brought into the house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>These powers seem to point to aspects of divinity&nbsp;that cannot be civilized enough to bring into everyday life. These powers are always external and remind us of the power of the bush or the forest--<em>el monte </em>in Cuban Spanish. In fact, there is a </span><a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-forest-spirits-give-people-their.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">story</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> from Dahomey that identifies an earth mound as the source of the gods, so we know that these powers are prodigious and procreative. </span><br /><br />If we take the image of something that always stands outside into society as somehow essential to both Babalú-Ayé&nbsp;and those who follow him, we come to something deeply untamable and alien within ourselves. In some cases, we fear to face the these things within ourselves, and in others we cannot bear the idea of showing these parts of ourselves to anyone else. As human beings&nbsp;that&nbsp;recognize the unintegrated within ourselves, we become less predictable - even to ourselves. Who really knows how she will react when the doctor announces cancer? Who can predict with total certainty how he will react to the slow decline of age or the loss of something precious like a parent, or a child, or a hand? Sometimes we shield ourselves from the world, taking refuge in the caves of isolation. Sometimes we rise to the throne of our own authority. Like Babalú, we touch our own hidden nature, and like Babalú, we become irascible and unique.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span>&nbsp;</div>Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-18450194219128440612012-06-16T16:56:00.000-04:002013-04-29T15:32:11.464-04:00Saint Roque as Babalú-Ayé<div class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OcWqOG7cF_8/T9zzMJWAw2I/AAAAAAAAAdM/XPE2jOeEhQg/s1600/photo-740073.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5754741813864874850" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OcWqOG7cF_8/T9zzMJWAw2I/AAAAAAAAAdM/XPE2jOeEhQg/s320/photo-740073.JPG" /></a></div><br /><br /><br />All along the Way to Campostela there are allusions to San Lazaro. In many towns, including Cacabelos where we are right now, there was a special hostel dedicated to San Lazaro located at the edge of town so pilgrims with the plague or leprosy would not have to mix with others. Imagined as a lame man on crutches with two dogs traveling with him, San Lazaro is a classic icon of suffering, isolation, devotion, and dynamism. <br /><br />Another similar figure is San Roque. Son of French nobles, Roque became a mendicant. On pilgrimage to Rome, he came down with the plague. With open wounds he walked to Campostela, attended by a faithful dog that licked his sores clean and brought him food to eat. He is always represented as a pilgrim with sores on his legs and a dog at his side. He caught people's imagination in the Middle Ages, and there are churches for him all along the Way. <br /><br />Yesterday I was already thinking a post about San Roque, who in Cuba is often linked to Babalú-Ayé, the deity of infectious disease and healing. Today we walked into Cacabelos, passed the Plaza de San Lazaro, and visited the little chapel where this image of San Roque sits on the main altar. <br /><br />When we went to the Plaza of San Lazaro for dinner, we saw an elderly homeless man picking through the dumpsters. As we left after dinner, he was still at it, so I offered him our leftovers--dinner for him and a small offering for us to show our gratitude for our well-being. Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-34437751613180136792012-05-30T11:23:00.001-04:002013-06-17T08:32:48.560-04:00The Work of Pilgrimage IV<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HusxCtz30is/T8Y7XnByaMI/AAAAAAAAAaA/mmw2cCap1xs/s1600/RailTracks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" rba="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HusxCtz30is/T8Y7XnByaMI/AAAAAAAAAaA/mmw2cCap1xs/s320/RailTracks.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I woke up this morning with my thoughts squarely on the pilgrim’s road. I love the image of moving out from a town and into the largely asocial and empty space. This middle place is outside of usual relationships. This middle place is neither here nor there. It is the betwixt-and-between space that many associate with rites of passage.&nbsp; You know another town is over the horizon or over the next hill, but you spend most of your time between specific places.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Similarly, the image of walking between more fixed social worlds intrigues me deeply. The pilgrim’s body literally moves out of one space and into the middle ground. It is the work of the body that propels the pilgrim forward, and it is the body that is marked by pilgrimage. The pilgrim sweats and drenches his clothes. With time, the sweat mixes with clothes worn day after day, and the pilgrim begins to reek. The pilgrim’s feet strike the Earth again and again. Her legs again, and her feet begin to swell.&nbsp; Most pilgrims end up with blisters, making each step excruciating. When stopping, pilgrims peel off their shoes and socks to doctor the angry, red sores. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These ulcers are the price for movement, that most valuable of psychic gifts. Pilgrimage teaches the value of moving forward, of attending to the people and places you encounter, of respecting your limits even as you try to reach your goals. </span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-67608984405629883082012-04-11T13:56:00.000-04:002013-11-16T07:02:11.835-05:00Tending Babalú-Ayé in the Sabalú Style<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n3GJBFFMyCI/T4XEfyRJC4I/AAAAAAAAAWo/PHxKPETw9EE/s1600/DSCN0051.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" qda="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n3GJBFFMyCI/T4XEfyRJC4I/AAAAAAAAAWo/PHxKPETw9EE/s320/DSCN0051.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the religion, there is a long tradition of honoring the spirits once a week with simple offerings. The most famous of these offerings is tending the Warriors on Mondays. <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/11/pedro-abreuasonyanye-son-of-asojano.html">Pedro Abreu—Asonyanye</a> taught me to tend Asojano and his family every Thursday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Since Asojano only eats eat at night, so it has to be in the evening after dark.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After placing a mat before <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/05/echu-afra-messenger-and-guardian-of.html">Afrá</a>, <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/05/nanu-mother-of-babalu-aye.html">Nanú</a>, and Asojano, you kneel and press your forehead to the floor. Then you do the Arará version of the invocation of God, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fodunces </i>(orichas), the ancestors, and the living.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Unlike the Lucumí version that relies on the repeated use of the phrase “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mo juba,” </i>the Arará invocation revolves around the phrases “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sofalú</i>” and “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">emí</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">chelé</i>.” You can light incense if you want to.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Next you make the simple offerings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>You spray Afrá with white wine <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">or</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">aguardiente</i> (cane liquor, like rum). He also takes cigar smoke. Nanú and Asojano take white wine, rum, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> gin. When you blow the alcohol from your mouth onto Nanú and Asojano, you blow it across your hand and then you squeeze out what remains on your hand and let it drip into the opening at the top of their vessels.&nbsp; &nbsp;Nanú and Asojano also love cigar smoke. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Still with your forehead on the floor, you speak to the fodunces, using your name and identifying yourself with your Orula sign if you have one. A man would say, “I, so-and-so, awofaka ni Orunmila omolodu such-and-such, come before you tonight to ask for…” A woman would say, ““I, so-and-so, ikofá fun ni Orunmila omolodu such-and-such, come before you tonight to ask for…”</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You should speak out loud, as your voice and breath have aché. In the many years I have been in the religion, I have seen that people who speak from the heart have the strongest impact on the fodunces. It is good to pray for your elders in the religion and your family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Another thing I have learned:&nbsp;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;a</span>lways pray for health. ALWAYS. Ernesto Pichardo—Obá Irawó says that the three blessings we seek are health, wealth, and tranquility.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After your prayers, you clean yourself with the já and then cast the cocos to make certain that Afrá, Nanú, and Asojano all accept the offering. The <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/03/cabildo-arara-sabalu-nonjo.html">Sabalú</a> have special songs before and after casting the cocos. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You can also offer a gourd filled with black beans and crowned with a red onion. When you offer it, you take two fistfuls of beans out and clean yourself with them, then place them in a second gourd. You do this each day for seven days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Carry the beans and the onion to the woods and are leave them for Asojano. This is a very powerful cleaning. </span></div>Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-29967362335563820672012-03-16T14:29:00.002-04:002013-04-30T15:25:36.578-04:00Antolín Plá, the first Babalú-Aye Made in the US<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cZHO7zuTgBA/T2OEzTz5iZI/AAAAAAAAAWg/Q6CP053h5bQ/s1600/Antolin+Pla02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cZHO7zuTgBA/T2OEzTz5iZI/AAAAAAAAAWg/Q6CP053h5bQ/s320/Antolin+Pla02.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When Antolín Plá needed to make Babalú-Ayé in Miami in 1976, the community leaders turned to Josefina Beltrán and Romelio Pérez—Talabí. Beltrán had received Babalú-Ayé Arará and was one of the elders on the scene at the time. Pérez grew up across the street from the house of </span><a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2009/12/armando-zulueta-founder-of-babalu-aye.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Armando Zulueta</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">—Omí Toqué, and he had worked Babalú with Zulueta for many years. Beltrán maintained that there was no way to make Babalú-Ayé direct in the US at that point. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Direct meant </span><a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2009/12/forms-of-babalu-aye-lucumi-versus-arara.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Arará</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, and it was simply impossible from her point of view. First, there were not enough Arará people to make it direct. Arará tradition said there had to be at least seven people with Babalú direct who were also possessed by the Old Man. There was also concern around the language of the invocation and the songs. Again, Arará tradition dictated that from the first prayer to the last song, the whole ceremony had to be in Arará language. To make matters worse, there were no <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">obaces</i> in Miami who had officiated in a direct Babalú Arará. The Arará ceremony also&nbsp;required a visit to a cemetery, and Beltrán was also concerned about how to do&nbsp;that in Miami. Finally, she knew that the Arará Babalú spoke through Ifá, rather than the shells.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">Beltrán and Pérez agreed that</span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> they could not make Plá in the </span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">Arara style, so they agreed that the only alternative was for him to make Obatalá with oro for Babalú. Plá received Babalú-Ayé a week before his ocha, and so he entered the room with Babalú. In the santo, he was crowned with Obatalá, who owns all heads.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">Once made, Plá was a generous if idiosyncratic priest. His grandson, Ernesto Pichardo-Plá--Obá&nbsp;Irawó, tells stories about his grandfather sitting on the floor in front of his Babalú and having long conversations with him. Plá would craft spiritual works with seeds and other simple things, and although no one had ever heard of them, these works were always effective. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">(Thanks to Ernesto Pichardo-Plá for the image.)</span></div>Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-34369767027751690662012-03-06T13:54:00.000-05:002013-11-16T07:02:34.187-05:00María Isabel Reyes—Asonsimeneco<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0-ky7DpamIY/T1ZdI8YrmvI/AAAAAAAAAWU/K_NMM7nVDPY/s1600/MariaIsabelReyes+ahijada+de+Mayito.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0-ky7DpamIY/T1ZdI8YrmvI/AAAAAAAAAWU/K_NMM7nVDPY/s320/MariaIsabelReyes+ahijada+de+Mayito.jpg" uda="true" width="240" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Late last week as I sat with the ancestors, I had a very clear image of María Isabel Reyes—Asonsimeneco. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>When I met her in 2004 with David Brown, she was all heart. Never a star, María Isabel was content to live in her small house and offer coffee to those who visited. Just as in life, she appeared warm, grounded, unambitious and just grateful for the attention. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Until her passing a couple years back, she was the senior Asojano priestess at the <u><a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/03/cabildo-arara-sabalu-nonjo.html">Cabildo Arará Sabalú Nonjó</a></u> in Matanzas. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Born on April 16, 1944, she was initiated on July 6, 1954 at age ten. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Amelia Mora—Chiarré was her oyugbona, and Dolores<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>“Lola” Vinajera—Juniko had Asojano made and served as her godmother. Lola had been made by Flora Heredia, who had made Towosi (the Arará Yewá). María Isabel waited 36 years to initiate her first priest, and that was <u><a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/11/pedro-abreuasonyanye-son-of-asojano.html">Pedro Abreu—Asonyanye</a></u> on February 20, 1992. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>In time she gave other Asojanos and even made a young man from Miami.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>While a legitimate defender of the Sabalú idea that only those who have made Asojano can give or make the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fodun</i>, María Isabel said she respected Babalú-Ayé <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Lucumí. </span></div>(Thanks to David H. Brown for the photo.)Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-77667813504312074392012-02-15T12:10:00.002-05:002013-04-30T15:38:40.342-04:00The Baró Family of Jovellanos, Land of the Lost Majino<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EDK42ZnR5WY/TzvmFP2v3bI/AAAAAAAAAWM/LTvyWxrw42s/s1600/baro+w+Pedro.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EDK42ZnR5WY/TzvmFP2v3bI/AAAAAAAAAWM/LTvyWxrw42s/s320/baro+w+Pedro.JPG" width="320" yda="true" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In my quest to get to know the Arará world, last week I travelled three hours from Havana to the little town of Jovellanos, Matanzas Province. There, I spent the afternoon in conversation with Patricio Baró and his son Manuel. Patricio is the last surviving son of the famous Esteban Baró; his older and widely respected sister, Miguelina, died recently. Esteban’s parents were from Savalu and Atakpame, and he spoke both Yoruba and Fon-gbe, which he called Nago and Fono.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Devoted to </span><a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/06/guero-oshumare-rainbow-in-arara.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dan Aïda Güeró</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, Esteban presided over the Sociedad San Manuel in Jovellanos, and his Güeró was impressive when it came down. He was also infamous for being irascible, refusing to share information outside of his family or the tiny Majino community. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Apparently these traits have been passed on. While Patricio at 81 years old was both coherent and cordial, neither he nor his 47-year-old son Manuel would share anything of substance. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>There were a few snippets of songs, including one for Oshumaré in Nago and one for Ajañajaña (Elegba) in Arará. They described their old annual tradition of playing for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fodunces</i> from the night of December 31<sup>st</sup> through January 6<sup>th</sup>, a practice now lost because of lack of funds. Similarly, they still play on the 16<sup>th</sup> of August to commemorate Esteban Baró’s birthday. They also mentioned the set of four drums they maintain, including one with a serpent carved into to represent Dan Aïda Güeró. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even when my godfather, </span><a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/11/pedro-abreuasonyanye-son-of-asojano.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Pedro Abreu</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">—Asonyanye asked a few simple questions, the Barós held back. After they mentioned the need to start ceremonies with Arará-language prayers, Pedro suggested finding some kind of unity between the different Arará groups and recited an Arará prayer he uses to open his ceremonies. But the Barós were having none of it. “You would not understand,” explained Manuel, “Neither your parents nor your grandparents were Majino. You would not understand.” This claim to familial relationship with the tradition is not one frequently heard in Havana or beyond, but it has been paramount in Jovellanos for more than 60 years. Even Manuel said his father had never found the time to teach him the family's lore, and he was resigned to the fact that it was going to die with the old man.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Matanzas City, we visited with Pedro’s godfather in Knife, Barbarito—Jevioso, who is active in the </span><a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/03/cabildo-arara-sabalu-nonjo.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Cabildo Sabalú</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> there. He was unsure if anyone in the Baró family had actually made oricha, explaining that until very recently most people in the countryside simply </span><a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/12/babalu-aye-and-santo-parado.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">washed their heads</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> and received a washed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fundamento</i> of the their head-oricha. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On the way back to Havana, Pedro reminded me of something Victor Quemafo had said to him as he prepared to be initiated. <span lang="ES-TRAD" style="mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;">“Los arará somos muy pocos y muy mal llevados.” </span>We Arará are very few and very badly behaved. </span></div>Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-33993153059295391522012-01-11T15:32:00.004-05:002013-04-30T16:01:33.118-04:00Where Lázaro de la Caridad Zulueta Soa Got Irete Meyi<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;+<br />I &nbsp;I<br />I&nbsp; I<br />O O</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">I I</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />I</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">t happened that Lázaro was having a hard time. Storms had cost him a great deal of money. He was unemployed like so many other people, and he was witnessing the slow degradation of all that he loved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>So Lázaro saved his pennies and brought down Orula. The three diviners pulled the odu <u><a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2010/03/working-with-atenas-irete-meyi.html">Irete Meyi</a>.</u> The sign came in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">osobo ikú otonowá</i>, the difficulty of natural death. Here is what the diviners said:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the sign of the Earth and it controls all that is implied by Death. The Earth’s greatest aché is endurance through difficulty, upheaval, and change. It is Asojano in person, and his spirituality is born here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This sign takes on everything that is cast out in life. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Orula says you will die when Olofi ordains it. You will die at the right time, but the sign comes with negativity, so you have to be careful to avoid its pitfalls. This sign is the birthplace of many illnesses. With negativity, you are moving toward death, and if you get sick, it will be hard to save you. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sickness is the entryway to Death. </b>The main illnesses that are likely to manifest fall into several main categories:</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span>Communicable diseases: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>For example, smallpox, leprosy, pleurisy, pestilent fevers, epidemics, infections that do not respond to antibiotics. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Epidemics start with one but endanger us all. </b></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span>Skin diseases: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>For example, Abscesses, boil, pimples, sores on the arms and legs, scabies, eczema and other skin eruptions.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span>Breakdown of bodily systems: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>For example, infertility, impotence, digestive disorders. It can be very difficult to have children in this sign. Children do not develop normally in the womb, and birth defects and miscarriages are common here.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span>Paralysis:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>You may have herniated discs that it hard to move. You must be extremely careful not to fall, as you can injury yourself severely. Be extra careful when climbing or getting on or off a bus or bicycle.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span>Blood diseases: For example, leukemia. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Where illness is is born, the blood is sick. The parasite is in the blood.</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You may have terrible ringing in your ears, and you may feel a great weakness in your hands and legs. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The elders in your family are likely to pass away soon. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The sign also says <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the one who drains the river destroys the home of the fish. </b>This reminds you of the need to maintain a healthy environment for yourself, your family, and your community. It speaks of environmental contamination that can harm you and yours. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This sign resuscitates the dead, as it went to the land of the dead but returned to walk with the living. Here you see why we say that Irete Meyi is Asojano in person. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Although you are not likely to listen, the odu says <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">go to the doctor and get a check-up.</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You suffer because of your character. You tend to be proud, hardheaded, vain, willful, and capricious. You think yourself superior to everyone, and you think that you do not need to follow the same rules that everyone else does. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>This leads to swearing, law-breaking, and even perversion. You may even delight in breaking taboos. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You like to praise yourself and enumerate your accomplishments, but you do not like to work hard. It is difficult for you to sacrifice for anyone else. Rather, you are inclined to sacrifice in order to get what you alone seek. You have difficulty admitting your mistakes. In fact, with osobo, you are capable of being extraordinarily cruel and cold. When angry, you are truly terrifying to everyone around you. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The furious sledge hammer sinks the anvil into the Earth. </b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These characteristics do not endear you to the people around you. In fact, your disregard for other may lead to your infecting them with your illnesses.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is a sign of judgment, and your attitude and behavior may also be judged very harshly by Olofi and the orichas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In this sign illness is sometimes a punishment. There is a famous story about Babalú-Ayé in this sign that speaks to the ramifications of a difficult character. <b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Where Babalú-Ayé cursed Coconut Tree.</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Babalú was exhausted and hungry from his long walk, when he arrived to a place in the forest where a beautiful coconut tree grew. He drew near and asked Coconut Tree, “If you would be so kind as to give me one of your children to slake my thirst and calm my hunger…” Coconut Tree was very proud and answered that his children were not to be given away as gifts but rather were&nbsp;for sale, explaining that if Babalú had money, she would sell him one of her children. But he didn’t even have a place to fall down dead, and looking at Coconut Tree said, “Lorobí eminé ofún lorobí aquelle lorobí.” (I curse you, the parasite will enter your body and by the time you realize it, you will be yellow.) After he continued walking for a while, he returned to the same place and saw that Coconut Tree was completely yellow and her children were spread across the ground.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Garamond&quot;, &quot;serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Temporary insanity with its associated outbursts and acting out can destroy a person’s reputation in this sign. Similarly, a crazy person here can ask for death, and Heaven will respond because the person has been disobedient and pigheaded. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The remedy for these character issues is simple: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The wise man practices humility and respect in all things.</b> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">He who comes from above will eventually lay his head on the Earth.</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is a sign of war and confrontation, so your strong character can engender hostility in others. The resulting conflicts are hard to manage. There are traps and plans made to thwart you on your road. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Simple problems turn out to be quite difficult here and tranquil situations turn violent with little notice. Well-kept secrets are revealed and things you thought were forgotten come out. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The oil’s surface is clear and still, but at the bottom it is dark and dirty.</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In fact, the <span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">intense and charged atmosphere of this sign can lead to curses being placed on children in the womb (usually by another woman who is jealous); a curse like this can cause all sorts of problems for both mother and child. Issues of paternity can tear families apart here, with doubts, accusations, insulations, and tragedies. Seduction of minors, incest, and rape are all too common here as are other forms of abuse (breaking taboos).</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Garamond&quot;, &quot;serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span>In this sign, Ochún had a difficult child who abused her, and children sometime mistreat their parents in this sign, and it is important to maintain order and respect in the home. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here you may learn that you have a child you did not know about. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Strange blood pacts and racial tensions also present themselves here. Secrets come out.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With blessings, this sign brings prosperity, so much prosperity that it creates envy in the people around you. But with osobo, it makes clear that you will continue to have hard times. Scarcity and difficulty will define your path for some time to come. You should prepare for losses.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you are well-off now, you must work to avoid a reversal of fortune, as masters become servants in this sign.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The odu says <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">you must be careful not to fall into the hole of prosperity. </b>There is a story here where Olofi tied up all the money in the world and hung it in a tree. Through ebó, Orunmila was able to get to it and share it with his children. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Specifically, Orula says you have to give coconuts, candles, and cool water to Orula. You have to be cleaned with a hen that is fed to Oyá. And you have to give your children spiritual baths regularly to protect them. (This sign includes a story where a woman loses three of her six children.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In addition, you need to do an ebó on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tablero</i> of Ifá with a hen, white cloth, red cloth, black cloth, a bow, a mouse trap, an egg, a bone with meat on it, a small fish and the other ingredients. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Make ebó to Asojano on a regular basis. Pay any debt that you have to him. This sign has everything to do with Babalú-Ayé, as a model for redemption and as a spiritual actor. Humility, obedience, and respect are essential for success here.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">More generally, the sign suggests a cleaning with two guinea hens if you become seriously ill. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This sign is nicknamed Eyi Elemere, because it is strongly associated with the emere, the <u><a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-forest-spirits-give-people-their.html">forest spirits</a></u> who teach medicine to those who meet them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>These spirits can bring great blessings to those who get to know them, but they can be unpredictable and therefore dangerous. Here again you see the link to the powers of the Earth.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you have been told that you will need to make ocha, you should do it within the year.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the birth of astral body so you may experience some kind of astral travel. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You cannot open or cross holes in the ground.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You should not eat many grains. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You should not eat animals that live underground.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">* * * * * * * * * * * * *</div>Lázaro de la Caridad Zulueta Soa heard the babalawos and made the ebó. Only time would tell how much negativity he would avoid.Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2874859417429853661.post-91918850134715724542011-12-29T17:26:00.003-05:002013-05-07T11:56:18.252-04:00How the Forest Spirits Gave People Their Gods<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lJhP0TBUhgw/TvznzhlpC2I/AAAAAAAAAVw/clQTrp3tb-k/s1600/DSCN4325.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" rea="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lJhP0TBUhgw/TvznzhlpC2I/AAAAAAAAAVw/clQTrp3tb-k/s320/DSCN4325.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When working in Dahomey, Herskovits recorded a very interesting story:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When people came into the world, they had no medicine. No one knew that leaves could cure. When people fell ill, there was no knowledge of what to do to cure them. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now there were hunters in those days who went into the deep, deep bush. One day a hunter came upon a mound of Earth in the bush. When he was about to pass it, a voice spoke from inside it. The hunter’s wife was a leper, and the voice said, “Hunter, I will show you a medicine to cure your wife. When you give it to her, she will become well again.” Then the voice said, “Turn your back to me and wait.” It was Azizan, the Forest Spirit, who was in the mound, and as the hunter’s back was turned, Azizan put the leaves beside him. When Hunter looked again, he saw the leaves. The voice said, “Take these leaves, crush them, and mix them with water. Then give some of this to your wife to drink, and use the rest to wash her sores.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When the hunter came home, he did what Azizan told him to do, and his wife was cured. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now Azizan had also told him, “When someone in your village is sick, come and tell me, and I will give you a cure.” So the hunter showed the way to all who were sick, and these came to the mound of Earth and told their troubles, and to each of them Azizan gave a medicine and explained its use. Those who followed Azizan’s instructions were cured.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One day a hunter brought a sick stranger to Azizan, and this stranger went to the king of his country and told him that there was a kingdom where the sick only needed to tell of their ailments before a mound of Earth, and they were cured.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lTDwzwv8vrM/TvzopJQjm5I/AAAAAAAAAWE/bP2zqPGib8Y/s1600/Earth-mound-30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" rea="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lTDwzwv8vrM/TvzopJQjm5I/AAAAAAAAAWE/bP2zqPGib8Y/s320/Earth-mound-30.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">The king said, “I will go there myself. I want to see.” So the king went to the bush where the mound of Earth was, and took with him&nbsp;a goat, a bottle of rum, and some palm oil. He killed the goat on the mound of Earth, and said, “In my country we have no vodun. I want to take you to my country to be a vodun. If someone in my kingdom is ill, I will send him to you for medicine.” And Azizan gave him magic and told him what vodun were to be worshipped so&nbsp;that his country might prosper. Azizan gave to this king various deities including Sagbata (Babalú) and told him to build a house for each of them. Azizan also said that if people wished to have any of these vodun, they had only to come for some dirt from this mound.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So the vodun and the magic that is in the world were all given to people by Azizan. (See <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dahomean Narrative</i>, pp. 217-218, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dahomey</i>, Vol. ii, pp. 261-262.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This story raises intriguing links and interesting questions. I do think it is interesting that the hunter only finds the wisdom that heals in the “deep, deep bush.” &nbsp;This reminds me of what the famous babalawo Hermes Valera—Otura-Sá told David Brown about the religion requiring us to go “monte adentro”—deep into the forest—to find the ingredients and wisdom we need to survive. (See <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Garden in the Machine</i>.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Could it be that <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2011/12/work-of-pilgrimage.html">Nana Burukú</a> in Dassa-Zoumé is a particularly primeval and powerful form of Azizan? Could the covered earth-mound on the mountain be the place from which all other vodun emerged? That would help explain Nana Burukú as the creator. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the same time, this story seems to be very much related to Babalú-Ayé. The hunter’s wife has leprosy, the most illness most strongly associated with Babalú wherever he is found. The fact that the hunter encounters Azizan at a mound of Earth is fascinating. Here, the small forest spirits speak out at an Earth mound with a single voice that carries healing wisdom. In the story about the origin of the <a href="http://baba-who-babalu-santeria.blogspot.com/2009/12/shakuanas-secret-place-to-eat.html">kiti</a> from Oyekún-Ojuani, the wise voice of Elegba speaks to Babalú himself at a mound of Earth, where he can call and feed these spirits in secret. &nbsp;Incidentally, I just found that in Dahomey, Kiti was described with Azizan as two of several classes of spirits “partly human, partly supernatural who live in the forest” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dahomey</i>, Vol. II, p. 260). </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These small “forest people” have an interesting role in the West African-inspired world where it is localized. Johnson describes the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ijimere </i>in Yoruba communities, and in Cuba the odu Irete Meyi is still sometimes called by the nickname E<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lemere</i> because of its link to these forest spirits. Bascom documented similar spirits called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">iwin</i>, and in fact, some of his people suggested that the iwin will teach secrets (medicine?) &nbsp;to hunters and tell them the future (Bascom Papers Carton 27, Folder 39). Other people told him that the iwin work with Osain and Babalú-Ayé specifically (Carton 30, Folder 6), and still others said that Babalú-Ayé is actually one of these spirits, who appear to a person when ill (Carton 27, Folder 37). These notions also bring to mind the ebó in Irete-Iwori where the person has to feed sixteen different places in the natural world to engage the spirits living in those places, all the while praise Babalú-Ayé-Dasoyi. &nbsp;They also call to mind the sixteen positions that are fed in preparation for the New Year. While these forest spirits are no longer central to our practice in Cuban-inspired traditions, they continue to exert their influence and call out for praise.</span></div>Michael Atwood Masonhttps://plus.google.com/105699275923931217489noreply@blogger.com1